RE: Philanthropy Blog

The Orcas Island Community Foundation (OICF) is a small but mighty foundation. In 2011, with assets of $4 million spread across 70+ funds, we had outgrown our ‘off the shelf’ bookkeeping software, spending over half of our precious staff time on accounting. We struggled with finding right sized technology.

As my boss and Blackbaud CEO Mike Gianoni noted, “#GivingTuesday has gone from a simple idea to become a genuine global phenomenon.” The unofficial start to the end-of-year giving season once again kicked off this #GivingTuesday, December 2nd 2014, and with #UNselfies shared and charitable gifts made, giving is in full-swing.

100 years. A lot happens in 100 years. Just take a moment to imagine life in 1914. An unprecedented World War was just starting. The Great Depression, the Civil Rights movement, and personal computers were still in the future. Even the science fiction of the time couldn’t predict the world of 2014.

On the 100th anniversary of the community foundation – as we contemplate how these crucial institutions can be even more relevant in the next century of their existence than they have been in their first – it’s crucial to look hard at what donors value.

The idea of coordinated giving days is gaining momentum. These social media campaigns provide an image-building opportunity for community foundations as well as opportunities to build the capacity of our grantees to raise money for themselves.

Giving online is increasing in double digit percentages year over year, yet in our community, many of the nonprofits we serve have barely have a website let alone a “Donate Now” button. As a result, we thought it was important for us to help our nonprofits become familiar with raising money online.

Guy David Gundlach’s story of philanthropy is unique. This is not your typical planned giving story involving a long relationship between a donor and a charitable organization resulting in an estate gift dedicated to a specific cause. It is the story of a businessman with global interests who left the vast majority of his entire estate, totaling nearly $150 million, to his hometown of Elkhart, Indiana through the community foundation.

Share Your Story with Us

If you or your foundation is interested in submitting a blog post, please adhere to the following guidelines.

Post Guidelines

RE: Philanthropy Blog posts must be around 300 – 500 words, sharing unique perspective or expert information. You may include references and links to your organization, as well as relevant resources such as research reports, graphs, and multimedia that supports your post. Overly promotional pieces will not be considered for inclusion, nor will any piece that is blatantly offensive. We recommend ending the piece with a question or thought-provoking statement that will prompt readers to engage in the conversation.

Submission

Submit your piece, as well as a headshot and information about the author to Calvin Harris at calvin.harris@cof.org. Make sure your post has a strong title. In addition, please submit any relevant high definition images that support your post.

Placement

Council staff will review your post for appropriateness and incorporate grammatical and style edits to ensure consistency throughout the post. If your piece is selected for submission, the post will be published on the blog and promoted through the Council’s Facebook, Twitter, and our weekly edition of This Week at the Council. Authors are also encouraged to share their pieces on the Philanthropy Exchange, the online community of Council members.